Is Disarmament Possible?

...The central fact of the situation is the existence, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, of considerable and growing supplies of atomic and thermonuclear weapons which, used in a surprise attack, could destroy entire countries...

...British Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan hardly exaggerated when he declared in London recently: "If any country evaded its obligation even to the extent of a single H-bomb, that country could blackmail the rest of the world...

...But it is certainly an indispensable one...

...Yet, this is not all that is needed for the survival and ultimate victory of the free world...

...while the buildup of industry, especially war industry, is progressing at an accelerated pace...

...Let us further suppose that they decide upon a plan for mutual, controlled disarmament...

...This is the price we paid for the naivete of postwar material and moral disarmament...

...In other words, there is one indispensable condition of effective disarmament: democracy with freedom of expression, dissent, opposition...

...The disarmament treaty would obviously not outlaw all transatlantic airplanes, ships and submarines...

...Now living standards, while terribly low, seem to be slowly rising...

...Even so, the worst that could happen to the Soviet Union is that it would resume the open arms race in a relatively more advantageous position...

...But we would know that public opinion in both countries would watch over implementation of the treaties, that any attempt at deception or evasion would run the risk of being discovered and denounced by scientists, workers, the press, the churches or labor unions...

...It does not make much difference whether the Soviet Union admits to its territory 500, 5,000 or 50,000 international inspectors...

...But, on the other hand, no amount of economic well-being and social progress can stop totalitarian airplanes or missiles with atomic warheads...

...the liberation of peoples under foreign rule (from Morocco to Czechoslovakia...

...He may even feel that atomic war would devastate the world to such an extent that a Communist "victory' would have no meaning...

...Finding the proverbial needle in the haystack is child's play compared to the task of discovering secret atomic arsenals in the vast reaches of a totalitarian country where telling a foreigner what the Government wants to keep secret means death and the extermination of one's entire family...

...Defensive strength is certainly not a sufficient condition for the free world's survival and victory...

...On the other hand, further attempts to expand on the periphery of the non-Soviet world, in Korea, Greece and Berlin, have also strengthened the unity and mobilized the material and moral resources of the free world, which are still potentially greater than those of the Moscow-Peking Axis...

...Let us look at the situation through the eyes of a faithful Communist...

...From the undeniable fact that foolproof inspection is impossible some people draw the conclusion that we must accept a less reliable control system...

...Bourgeois stupidity" offers him a gambit which, if played well, can bring victory at almost no cost...

...Those who prefer slavery to death should be warned at this point: These surrenders would not prevent bloodshed...

...Rumania and Bulgaria are limited by peace treaties which those countries as well as the Soviet Union signed after World War II...

...The Soviet Party Secretary is playing for much bigger stakes...

...Yet, supervision north of the demarcation line proved a farce, and the Chinese and North Koreans have done all the things they promised not to do: strengthened their armies, built numerous airfields, and brought in hundreds of additional jet planes...

...The free nations cannot relax their defenses so long as they are confronted by a totalitarian force that is bent, by whatever means, on world conquest By Peter Meyer Ten years ago, the United States was swept by a wave of popular agitation for quick, unconditional, unilateral demobilization...

...There are, no doubt, economic strains in the Soviet empire...

...everybody should disarm and rely on the Spirit of Geneva...

...This would be a thoroughly rational, reasonable solution...

...It is, of course, ridiculous to speak of effective control if the inspectors are, as in the Soviet proposal, confined to a few ports, airfields and railway stations...

...the unity of Europe in freedom...

...Nothing could be more dangerous...

...It would mean gambling the free world's future on the word of the leaders of international Communism...

...The conquest of Eastern Europe and China has tremendously increased Soviet strength and basically altered the world balance of power...

...Indeed, without a shield of military strength and political vigilance, prosperity may merely provide an additional lure for the aggressor...

...Some experts attribute it to economic difficulties...

...In giving up the Soviet military base at Porkkala in Finland (in order to press for the dismantling of Allied bases around the world), Khrushchev told the Finnish President: "We are not interested in what you Finns are doing at home...

...To cite one example: The armed forces of Hungary...

...Moreover, the advantages the Communists derived from sabotaging the military clauses of the Korean armistice were limited in scope: The Chinese established military preponderance on a peninsula which, in the event of a worldwide clash, would be only a secondary theater of war...

...Clearly, the Soviet leaders have nothing to lose and everything to gain by a policy of deception...

...The risks in this procedure are not too great, from the Soviet point of view...

...The Soviet Union for many years maintained efficient secret networks inside the democratic, countries...

...Totalitarian regimes prefer wars against helpless populations to those against well-armed adversaries...

...Whole arsenals can be hidden in the cellars of innocent-appearing buildings or buried somewhere in the taiga...

...For it is clear that unilateral disarmament of the free world would mean the end of freedom and democracy everywhere...

...as many countries as possible should go neutral...

...Instead of an open clash with a highly dubious outcome, be can win the world by a stratagem...

...If the Soviet Union were able to retain her atomic arsenal while the democratic countries destroyed theirs, the free world would soon succumb to a surprise attack or else lose its freedom after a series of ultimatums and inevitable surrenders...

...Yet, their armed forces are several limes larger than permitted under the treaties...

...If it is essential for mankind to devise foolproof controls which will make a surprise atomic attack impossible, then the world cannot achieve safety without democracy...

...Indeed, there were almost no voices of opposition: Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives vied with each other in catering to the popular mood...

...The small nations of Eastern Europe and the greatest country in Asia fell under the totalitarian yoke before the world decided to rebuild, at tremendous cost, its irresponsibly dismantled postwar power...

...But the atomic arsenals could still be hidden from them...

...But deception in a worldwide disarmament agreement offers the Kremlin rulers the dazzling prospect of winning the "final battle" at minimal cost...

...If the free nations can maintain sufficient defense strength, the struggle will be decided on the political plane...

...The question is under what conditions it is possible...

...The Korean armistice, however, provided for limitation of armaments and armies in a comparatively small territory and with international supervision...

...The Spirit of Teheran and Yalta was invoked to drown all doubts about the democratic character, progressive aims and peaceful intentions of our Noble Soviet Allies...

...In the meantime, our only hope is a firm resolve not to engage in aggressive war combined with an equally firm resolve to maintain such strength and vigilance that the totalitarian rulers cannot attack without deadly risk to themselves...

...Again, the Communists and their helpers are trying to create an atmosphere in which it will be impossible to ask critical questions...

...It is rather a program for conquering the free world by disarming it...

...Is it not logical that the Soviet leaders should now give up the peripheral attacks for an attempt to disarm the free world and then attack it at its very core...

...That general disarmament is desirable, few people would deny...

...No amount of military strength can solve these and similar problems, and, if no progress is made toward their democratic solution, the free world can still lose the battle with Communism...

...Not because the contracting governments would necessarily be benevolent at all times and with no thought of evasion...

...The Communists and their fellow-traveling cousins were, of course, riding the wave...

...economic modernization and social reform in the "backward" countries...

...Have we at least learned our lesson...

...To let slip an opportunity to deceive the enemy, if it furthers Communist aims, is still regarded as treason in Communist theory and practice...

...Hence, he will avoid world war so long as the free world is strong and prepared for surprises...

...One shudders to think of the worldwide purge which would follow the free world's surrender...

...In all recent conferences, from Geneva to the present session of the UN General Assembly, Moscow's demands have been clear enough: The West should give up its defensive alliances...

...When tactical atomic missiles are small enough to be fired from cannons, and bombs capable of destroying large cities can be hidden in trunks, all talk about foolproof control in totalitarian countries becomes nonsensical...

...Its victims would be "reactionaries" as well as "liberals," "nationalists" as well as "cosmopolitans," Socialists as well as many of today's Communists and fellow-travelers, and, finally, all men and women with independent minds or humanitarian feelings...

...you are such a small country...

...Is disarmament impossible, then...

...Again, it is arising out of a legitimate popular sentiment: the yearning to remove (or forget) the Damoclean sword of world war and mass extermination which is hanging over our heads...

...Everything turns upon obtaining guarantees that disarmament is mutual...

...His aim is Communist rule throughout the world...

...The day when a totalitarian regime possesses these weapons and the means to deliver them, while its opponents do not, will be the last day of liberty on this planet...

...the boys should come home...

...Democracy, then, is not a luxury which the modern world can either enjoy or do without...

...This in no way suggests that the Soviet leaders are reconciled to the idea of a world half-free and half-Communist...

...There is little consolation in the thought that at least the means of delivery would be discovered...

...Nothing would be easier, in a totalitarian country, than to maintain, within the framework of the armed forces, the merchant marine, the civil aviation or the police, a special clandestine organization which could deliver atomic weapons from the concealed arsenals and start the airplanes or ships on their missions at a prearranged time...

...The international inspectors--if they were not cut off at the critical hour-might report the disappearance of the airplanes from the airports, but how would the disarmed free world stop them...

...Suppose the international inspectors stumbled upon one of the hidden Soviet arsenals and the world did not believe the official Soviet explanation that not Khrushchev and Bulganin, but the notorious imperialist agent Beria.had laid the eggs in the nest...

...All that is needed is to lull the enemy into false security by smiles, glib talk and a few inconsequential concessions, lure him into "bilateral" disarmament, keep a force sufficient for a sudden crippling attack, and then dictate the terms of surrender...

...Millions of human beings perished in purges and brain-washing campaigns, millions more disappeared into slave-labor camps, and the totalitarian bloc became a mortal threat to the entire world...

...It was an understandable human reaction: The war was over...

...The results are well known...

...But today the Communist leader sees a new opportunity...

...But it does not help much if they are allowed to fly over the country and take aerial pictures...

...He may be afraid that in an open clash the Soviet Union will lose or suffer crippling casualties...

...And one cannot exclude a clash of totalitarian colossi like Russia and China in a global war for supremacy--a war which would be conducted without mercy and could end in the destruction of life on earth...

...Under the Nazi as well as the Communist dictators, more people perished in concentration and slave-labor camps, and in wholesale liquidations of class or race "enemies," than in open warfare...

...But this, one may object, was an arms limitation without inspection...

...On the contrary, another wave of uncritical, irresponsible demobilization hysteria seems to be mounting before our eyes...

...And it may be that airplanes would not he necessary...

...The Communist regimes, so long as they remain totalitarian, constitute a threat to our survival...

...If our disarmament should free Soviet leaders of the fear of possible retaliation, what is to prevent secret Communist organizations from placing atomic explosives under American or British cities...

...But the Soviet Union surely survived far worse economic crises in the days when it stood alone...

...There has been much speculation on the reasons for the recent shift in Soviet foreign policy...

...America should dismantle its military bases...

...By way of an answer, let us consider the wildly improbable eventuality of democratic America and democratic Britain some day opposing each other as heads of two competing power blocs...

...It is extremely difficult to prepare and start an aggressive war when an entire free people is watching...

...Another central fact of the present situation is that atomic and thermonuclear weapons are produced in quantities and sizes which make existing stocks practically undetectable...

...Democracy will then win only if it provides solutions to the most pressing international problems: the democratic reunification of countries torn apart by world conflicts (Germany, Korea, Vietnam...

...And the amazing thing is that nobody is asking them: With vital negotiations in progress and Government policy less than clear, there is still no nationwide discussion of the problems of disarmament...

...And suppose the free world was only half-disarmed and could remobilize before it was too late...

...Or, if it is possible, under what conditions...

...They would, to be sure, discover slave-labor camps and other hidden features of Soviet society, which is why the Soviets oppose this proposal so strenuously...

...Communist doctrine not only allows, it positively prescribes deception of the "class enemy...